End of Summer

It has been several weeks since my last post. I have been a busy bee. I canned 4 ½ quarts of tomatoes! I also mailed for many seed catalogs as I want to get good seeds next year; no more Big Box Store seeds. I was particularly looking for heirloom seeds. This week I am going to dry some flower seeds, my sunflowers and marigolds. Can I find portulaka seeds? At first I was disappointed that I got the smaller sunflowers this year, but now that they have bloomed I am very happy with them. I saw some on a garden show that were huge, 6-7 foot stalks with many flowers all the way up the stalk. I will be on a search for them for next year.

I also have been knitting like crazy. Finished the Mobius scarf, very cool, I will get a picture next post. My mom’s sweater is coming along very nicely. I had a slight meltdown when I first separated for the sleeves, but after pulling out a few rows and putting my usual spacers in (every 14 stitches instead of every 20 stitches as it is a 7 stitch repeat), and I also am not knitting all the way across as there is too much tangling with 3 balls of yarn attached. In case you haven’t guessed, it is a top-down sweater. I am about 8 inches down the right front side and it looks pretty good.

On the Boy I Should Be Ashamed of Myself front: I have so neglected brushing Sophie that I finally gave up yesterday and took the clipper and shaved down her neck, behind her ears and her muzzle. I missed a few spots and didn’t want to torture her too much at once. I will take another go at it today. And brush another section of her body. Her body is pretty bad, but I can get through it, I don’t have to totally cut her down. My goal is to have her totally brushed by the end of the week and give her a bath! She looks kinda silly, but kinda cute, she looks very much like a poodle or a wolfhound. It’ll grow back. That is something that it took me many years to realize about myself. Remember how mortified you were when your mom cut your bangs?! It took Forever to grow back! If your mom didn’t cut your bangs or if she was a hairdresser and actually could cut your bangs, you missed some important angst in your adolescence.